January 29, 2012 - February 4, 2012 entries

February 01, 2012

On Monday, February 6 from 12:00 to 1:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are putting on a webinar titled "National Hydrogen Learning Demonstration Status." Supported by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Learning Demonstration is coming to a close this quarter. In the webinar you will learn more about DOE and industry metrics such a fuel economy, fuel cell durability, refueling time, and station utilization as well as the status of stations and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) deployed through the project.

In April 2004, DOE selected four teams to take part in the Hydrogen Learning Demonstration. Teams were led by Chevron (team included Hyundai-Kia Motor Co.; UTC Fuel Cells); Daimler (team included BP America; Ballard; DTE Energy; NextEnergy); Ford Motor Company (team included BP America; Ballard; NextEnergy; California Department of General Services; Sacramento Municipal Utility District; Florida Department of Environmental Protection; Progress Energy; City of Taylor, MI; City of Ann Arbor, MI) and General Motors Corp (team included Shell Hydrogen; Viewpoint Systems, Inc.; Quantum Technologies, Inc.; NextEnergy; U.S. Army; U.S. Marine Corps; State of Maryland). Additionally, Air Products and Chemical, Inc. provided station data through its DOE-funded California Hydrogen Infrastructure Project (CHIP).

The vehicle data was collected from 183 fuel cell electric vehicles spanning 154,000 hours of operation, 3.5 million miles, and more than 500,000 trips. Refueling station data was collected from 25 stations, which produced or dispensed 152,000 kg of hydrogen while fueling the vehicles approximately 33,000 times in all. The project was funded through DOE awards totaling $140 million, with an additional $188 million in cost-share provided by industry partners.

Hopefully these DOE and NREL efforts will enable the expansion of domestic fuel cell activities!